Forty Acres Book Description

No one gave the Washington family forty acres or a mule. C.W. Washington has risen from a sharecropper’s son to the largest Black landowner in the county. But a stroke has forced him to retire from farming. Now he must decide what happens to his beloved land, and he has gathered his family together during the annual family reunion. Each of his children has a suggestion, unfortunately, none of them agree. Should the land go to the son who stayed home and farmed alongside him for years? Or should he sell the land and divide the money equally among his seven children? Should he consider that one of them doesn’t need money or that one is almost bankrupt? What about his son in prison? And what about the “outside” child?

The reunion should be a time of fellowship and fun. But this year, along with barbeque, fried catfish and hand-cranked ice cream, there’ll be servings of suspicion, secrecy and greed. The Washingtons have overcome drought, poverty and Jim Crow. Now comes the hard part…